Most electrical connectors include some form of a dielectric housing for mating with a complementary connector or electrical component, with terminals mounted within the housing for termination to electrical wires or other electrical or electronic conductive components. Usually, the terminals are mounted in passages in the housing, with mating ends of the terminals near a mating end of the housing for interengagement with terminals of the complementary connector. The terminals have terminating ends near a terminating (usually rear) end of the housing for termination to the electrical wires or other conductive components.
One type of electrical connector of the character described above includes a plurality of metal terminals, most often stamped and formed from sheet metal material, which are crimped to a plurality of conductors, such as insulated electrical wires. Each terminal may include a first crimp section for crimping onto and establishing electrical connection with the conductive core of the wire. The terminal often includes a second crimp section for crimping onto the outside insulating cover of the wire to provide a strain relief between the terminal and the wire. Such crimping termination systems sometimes crimp the terminals to the electrical wires in a separate preassembly step, and then the terminal/wire subassemblies are inserted and locked into positions within the housing passages. On the other hand, some such terminal crimping systems mass assemble the terminals into the housing passages; then the wires are inserted into the terminals; and the connector housing is provided with opening means for access therethrough of a crimping tool to crimp the terminals onto the wires "in situ" in the housing.
Problems have been encountered in the latter systems described above wherein the terminals are crimped to the electrical wires while the terminals are mounted within the connector housing. Specifically, practically all such terminals include some form of retaining or latching means to prevent the terminals and/or terminated wires from being withdrawn or pulled out the connector housing. These retaining means normally are separate portions of the terminals, such as outwardly projecting cantilevered latch arms which lockingly engage within or behind latching cavities or shoulders formed within the passages through the connector housing. Since the retaining means are separate from the terminating ends and crimp sections of the terminals, size or envelope problems are encountered, particularly with the ever-increasing miniaturization of electrical connectors and corresponding mating electrical or electronic components. In addition, since the retaining means project substantially outwardly from the terminals, the corresponding latching cavities within the passages of the connector housing also must be of substantial size which, again, causes problems with the ever-increasing miniaturization of such connectors, because the housing walls between the passages must be of substantial thickness which inhibits close center-to-center spacing of the terminals.
This invention is directed to an improved retention system for retaining crimpable terminals in a connector housing by incorporating the retention means directly into the crimp sections of the terminals, the terminal retention being effected as a function of the terminal crimping operation itself. Therefore, the size or length of the terminals can be reduced considerably, and the spacing between the terminals can be reduced because extraneous latch arms or the like have been eliminated.